


Stay Positive

by Pink_Polenta



Series: Dramatic lazytown series [2]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Alex is no OC, Doesn't take place in Lazytown, Finished, Gen, Gets lighter after ch2, Just Google them, Lazytown Lore, Neither is Mr. Kicker, Nine’s back, part of a series, regular updates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-08 14:10:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12255972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_Polenta/pseuds/Pink_Polenta
Summary: Alex was absolutely silent as he sat in a small closet. He hoped that his hiding space was good enough to keep him from being found, he didn’t want to be discovered by whoever had been following him and his parents.-----This takes place in the same universe as 'I am Always Okay'





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Yet again, this story has been written by non native English speakers and their main beta was word.

The last couple of weeks had been very stressful for Alex and his parents. Alex hadn’t been told what exactly was going on, but his parents were pretty scared and they were moving a lot. They had even left Iceland at some point. Alex didn’t know where they were right now, but it wasn’t in his home country. It seemed someone was following them. That was what Alex had been able to make up from the conversations he overheard but wasn’t supposed to have. His parents talked about a lot of things they didn’t want him to hear, but no matter what they did Alex did find out some things. Whatever was following them was extremely dangerous and under no circumstances should it or they catch up with the small family.

All this running had been to no avail in the end. It had caught up with them. They had been able to gain a couple of weeks, but it had come at last. Someone was breaking through the door of the house they were in, the door creaking badly at the force being used. Alex was shaking with fear. He might not know who had been following them, but the way his parents were scared made him scared too. As the abuse on the door continued Alex’s parents told him that he had to hide while they faced whoever had been following them for weeks.

 

* * *

 

Alex was absolutely silent as he sat in a small closet. He hoped that his hiding space was good enough to keep him from being found, he didn’t want to be discovered by whoever had been following him and his parents. It was now so quiet that Alex barely dared to breathe. Only a few moments ago his home had been filled by his parents’ agonized screams. It had been horrible to listen to, but at least he hadn’t been able to see them get hurt as well. The floor creaked as someone walked around. Alex was pretty sure that whomever it was, that it was neither his mother nor his father. In his mind Alex was conjuring all kind of images of what could be going on outside. He hoped that whatever had happened and whoever was walking outside his closet was nowhere near as scary as he was coming up with in his head.

All the while the unknown person was looking around the room; Alex did not move a muscle. This was quite a feat for the boy as he normally couldn’t sit still for more than three seconds. His entire family was like that, very active. Eventually it was all to no avail as the door to the closet Alex was hiding in opened. The smell of copper assaulted his nose as the door opened. The face that greeted the eight-year-old was skinny and angular. High cheekbones and a pointy nose were the most prominent features in his face. His chin was nearly non-existent and his eyes were dark brown. There were dark spatters on his face which Alex quickly identified as blood. It was a face Alex would never forget and which would often appear in his nightmares, when he would have them.

“Hello there, young man.” His voice was rather nasal and high and reminded Alex of nails scratching on a blackboard. Alex’s English wasn’t the best, but it was good enough to understand what the man had said and to understand what he said next.

“I am mister Kicker, and from now on you do as I tell you.” Mister Kicker then grabbed Alex by the collar and pulled him out of the closet. He made no move to hide his handy work from the boy he was pulling behind him.

What Alex saw in those few seconds would forever be etched into his memory. The image would haunt him even more than the face of mister Kicker would. He wanted to puke, but nothing would come up. His mother was staring straight at him. Her face was still mirroring the pain she had gone through, her eyes glazed over as life had left them. Her body was lying at a strange angle with her head, her neck clearly broken. Her clothes were torn and a bloody knife was sticking out of her chest. She was lying in a puddle of her own blood.

His father’s body wasn’t as damaged, except for his head. The cause of dead was obvious by the damage done to the head. It was beaten beyond recognition. Alex could see that the murder weapon was a dumbbell as it was covered in blood. He recognised it as the dumbbell his father would often use for strength exercises, one that was still too heavy for Alex to lift. Pieces of meat and something Alex guessed were brains were spattered across the floor.

These were the last memories he had of his parents as he was then dragged out of the door and into his new life.

 

* * *

 

The drive to wherever mister Kicker was bringing him was pretty long and Alex spent the entire time hugging his knees and silently crying. He understood now why his parents had been so adamant that they had to stay away from this man and why they had been so scared of him. They had failed and Alex had ended up with his hands tied in front of him with iron shackles and no windows. Over all, Alex was feeling horrible the entire ride.

Eventually the car stopped and mister Kicker opened the door to pull Alex out. He almost fell to the ground, but he was able to keep his balance at the last moment. Alex looked around, they seemed to be in some sort of underground garage. From this place he was led further into the building. For a long time, they did not see anyone, they seemed to be all alone in this dark place. They got in a small room where mister Kicker gave Alex a bag.

“This will be everything you need for a long time.” Alex didn’t have the time to ask what that meant before he was led further into the building. This time the meaning was lost to him not just because English was not his first language. Well, Alex thought that mister Kicker was pulling him deeper into the building. He was proven wrong when plastered walls were replaced by rocks. They seemed to be in a cavern of some sort. Here they finally saw other people; some dirty children were carrying around heavy bags. They all looked sickly pale, sad, and exhausted. It quickly dawned upon Alex that this was a mine and that he would be working there.

“You there!” Mister Kicker shouted at one of the kids. The boy he had shouted at flinched noticeably and walked over to the man. He had brown shaggy hair and hazel eyes. His body was rather scrawny, but he was also a few centimetres taller than Alex.

“Yes, sir?”

“Show the new boy where he sleeps.” Mister Kicker turned to Alex and removed his shackles. Alex felt a little bit more free, even though he was in a mine, at least he could freely move his hands now. Mister Kicker started to walk away, but before he left the shaft the two boys were standing in he turned around to say one last thing.

“Things will be very different now.”


	2. Chapter 1

The boy leading Alex to the communal sleeping area was called Chip and he had been in the mines for a long time. It was hard to measure time down there, but Chip told Alex that he thought he had been there for at least a year. Alex nodded along with Chip and internally decided to keep better track of the days. He didn’t want to forget that there was life outside the mines, as he got the impression that Chip had. He felt it was important that he continued to believe that he could one day get out. How could he continue to believe that if he had forgotten what came before the mines?

The communal sleeping area was a rather large room that didn’t hold any furniture. There were sleeping mats and blankets in small clusters all over the room. It was cold and unfriendly, no place for children to sleep. Chip told Alex to just claim a spot and put his stuff there, any place was fine as long as he kept the paths to the other mats clear. Alex did as he was told and took a spot in the middle of the room. Well, Alex assumed that he did what Chip asked from him. It seemed that he wasn’t going to be speaking Icelandic again for a while, better get used to a new language he thought.

After this Chip showed Alex the dining area where they were greeted by a bunch of other children. The dining area was smaller than the sleeping area and Alex guessed that not everyone got to eat at the same time or that it would just get really packed during certain times of the day. Alex had yet to see any adults besides mister Kicker. When he asked the other children about this he learnt that mister Kicker really was the only adult that ever went down the mines. Children that reached the end of puberty were taken outside and were never seen again. Many hoped that this meant they were set free, but Alex doubted this.

They continued talking over their evening meal and in that short while Alex learnt a lot more about life in the mines. The oldest child was Steve at fourteen (they guessed his age, he had been down there for a long time) and the youngest was Lilly at age six and had arrived a few weeks before Alex had. He also learnt that the food arrived through a chute and that they had a schedule for whom had to cook when. All provided by mister Kicker. None of them knew anything about mister Kicker besides his surname and that he was a very bad man. He would probably have learnt a whole lot more if he had understood everything he said. It seemed that they were quite confused by the fact that he wasn’t fluent in English like they were, but they tried to make it easier by using simple words. They also questioned him about where he came from and were fascinated to learn more about Iceland. Alex sighed and rubbed his eyes, he had just lost his parents and had been brought to work in a mine as a slave. With a small smile on his face he thought ‘well, it can’t get any worse, can it?’

 

* * *

 

It didn’t take long for Alex to learn that life in the mines was a hard one. The days were long and tiring, but Alex tried to make the best of it. When he had the time, he would try to exercise or play games with the other children. They thought him to be very odd. How could someone who had experienced what he had still be so upbeat? All of the other children had been abducted while alone, none of them had been chased. They also thought his pointy ears were weird, but Alex just told them he was born that way and that was that. Everyone had their things of which they would or wouldn’t talk about and most of the children were pretty respectful of that.

At first the other children weren’t very enthusiastic about joining Alex in his activities. They were scared that they wouldn’t do enough work for mister Kicker if they did. Alex decided that the only way he could combine play with work was if he made work into play. He made up songs for them to sing while they were hacking away at the rocks and games for them to play while carrying their mined ores away. His effort in making the other children see the fun of his games paid off as more and more of them joined in.

Soon laughter and singing could be heard all around the mines. Their lives were shit, but Alex had helped them to make the most out of it. Months passed by as the children became more and more excited about Alex’s games and even started to make up some of their own. They eventually got so into it that they didn’t notice that they were starting to work slower and slower. It only took a few weeks for mister Kicker to notice this change in productivity and he wasn’t happy about it, not happy at all. He started to monitor the mines more often in person and would hit any child he would catch singing or playing with his cane. Mister Kicker didn’t even need to use his cane to make some of the children cry, so scared were they of his presence alone. Sometimes he would also hit the kids just to make them work harder, not because they were singing or playing.

 

* * *

 

It turned out that just beating children with a cane was not enough for mister Kicker. He had called all the children to the biggest cavern. There had been no reason given as to why, but it scared the children as it had never happened before. Some of the children were already crying just because they heard of the announcement. Alex tried to keep the mood from deteriorating even further by saying that mister Kicker couldn’t do anything to all of them at the same time. It helped only a little. Even if they were there for just an announcement, it couldn’t be any good. Nothing mister Kicker ever said or did was any good.

They all gathered around mister Kicker. The tall man made sure there was a wide empty circle around him by waving his cane around. No one dared to come any closer anyhow, who would want to come within reach of the cane even if mister Kicker wasn’t swinging it around? The cruel man was the worst nightmare of every child present, none of them needed a swinging cane to stay away from him. Mister Kicker didn’t say a word as he walked into the crowd, the kids stepping aside like the Red Sea for Moses. He stopped in front of Alex and grabbed him by the collar, dragging the boy back to where he had been standing before. Alex was pretty scared at this. Why had mister Kicker decided to pick him out like that?

“It has come to my attention that it was you who started these games and songs.” The venom behind the words ‘games’ and ‘songs’ would make one believe that they were the most disgusting things in the world. Games and songs were great things and Alex was very much in disagreement with the man. Alex opened his mouth to answer, but decided against it. He had a feeling that nothing he could say would change the outcome. What the outcome would be, he didn’t know.

Mister Kicker forced Alex on his knees and stood before him. He towered high above Alex, their height difference made worse by Alex kneeling.

“I think we need to make very clear what happens when one slows down the production to have fun.” He smirked down at Alex, straight white teeth looking like fangs. The boy who he was looking at felt dread filling him.

“Pull off your shirt.” Alex did as he was told and as he did so, mister Kicker retrieved something from his coat pocket. It was a whip that mister Kicker was holding. Alex stared at it with wide eyes. None of the children had ever mentioned a whip and Alex hadn’t seen it before either. Mister Kicker always seemed more than happy with just his cane, but it seemed that it would not suffice for the lesson mister Kicker was planning to teach. Mister Kicker walked around Alex to stand behind him, disappearing from the boy’s view. Alex knew it wasn’t going to be an enjoyable lesson, not like when his parents would teach him things.

The first hit lashed across Alex’s back causing him to shout out in surprise. His back was now stinging, but Alex expected that it wasn’t over yet at all. He was proven right by a second and a third hit slapping across his back. He crunched his teeth together to avoid more screaming. He felt the need to be strong for the other children. If they saw him fall to mister Kicker they might stop playing games out of fear. Some of them were already crying. Somehow Alex felt more sorry for them than for himself.

Soon Alex lost track of the number of lashes he had gotten from the whip. The only thing he had noticed that changed was that it started to hurt more and more and that some warm liquid was dripping down his back. Alex guessed that it was blood. The longer it went on the harder it became to focus on anything beside the pain. He tried to put his mind off from it, but his world shrunk until only the pain was there. For a moment everything became a little bit clearer and Alex noticed that he was now laying on his front. Through his hazed mind he felt himself being carried off. His whole back was on fire and every jolt made it hurt even more. He was able to stay conscious until he was set back down. He didn’t know what happened after as he gave into the darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

Alex woke up with his back still throbbing in pain, but it was less bad than the last time had been conscious. He was laying on his stomach with his head turned to the left. He was pretty sure he wasn’t wearing a shirt and that his torso was wrapped in bandages. He opened his eyes to look around, but besides that he lay perfectly still. He wasn’t very good at lying still, but he understood that right now it was the best thing to do for him. He noticed that he was in the communal sleeping area, but not in his usual space in the middle of the room. He guessed that on the side he wasn’t facing was a wall. He was pretty sure that this had been Thomas’ spot.

Some movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. It was Carina, a small and skittish girl that didn’t talk too much. She was approaching him and she gasped when she saw that his eyes were open.

“You- you are f-finally awake!” After having seen him with his eyes open she suddenly became incapable of looking at him directly. She was kneeling beside him and blocking his view from the rest of the room.

“Yes...” Alex stopped talking for a moment in surprise, his voice was incredibly scratchy. At that moment he also noticed that his head was throbbing and that he was incredibly thirsty.

“Do you have any water?” Carina nodded and grabbed a glass of water that had been standing just outside of Alex’s view. She then put it down again and started to help Alex sit up straight. This hurt a lot, but Alex knew it was necessary for him to drink as well. After a few sips from the refreshingly cool water, Alex turned back to Carina.

“For how long have I been out?” She bit her lip in response and looked at him for a moment before looking at the dirty floor again.

“Th... Three days. I k-kept track of them for you.” She shows him his ‘calendar’ on which he had been keeping track of all the days he had been imprisoned there. He had now been in the mines for over a year, but he had still not given up on the possibility of ever getting outside again.

“Thank you.” He gave her a small smile. She seemed to want to say something else, but they were interrupted by Chip.

“Alex! You’re finally awake. That’s really good, we were starting to get very worried.” Chip continued to rattle on while Carina stood up and left. Alex humoured him by humming on the right moments. He took another sip as his headache started to return. Having a normal conversation and following whatever Chip was talking about had become a lot easier through time as Alex had started to pick up more and words. At this point he had become pretty fluent in English.

 

* * *

 

It took a couple of weeks for Alex to get back on his feet and during those few weeks he felt that the work he had done to cheer up the other kids in the mines the last year had become almost completely undone. He wasn’t deterred however, he had only grown more determined to help everyone. A second thing that he noticed was that Carina was trying to help him with everything and avoiding him at the same time.

Alex’s continuing enthusiasm and optimism got the other children a bit back into the games, but none of them dared to sing or were as into it as they had once been. Alex realised that as it didn’t seem any help would come that they would have to free themselves. He talked about the idea to escape to some of the children he was the closest to, but only Chip seemed to want to be in on it. All the other children were way too scared. He needed to find a way to have them believe in him and believe that there was a chance that they could get out. Alex had actually already thought of a plan, but he kept from sharing it because of the lack of enthusiasm.

 

* * *

 

Things weren’t much better once Alex was put back to work. He discovered that the place where he had been hit repeatedly with a whip had not been cleaned. The blood that Alex had lost there was on the walls and the floors. He had had no idea that it had spattered that far and he realised that it must have been a gruesome sight for all the other children. Chip was quick to tell him that they had been forbidden from cleaning it as it had to serve as a reminder what would happen if you went against mister Kicker. The man himself had said so after Alex had fallen to the floor. Alex didn’t remember that, but as he had been barely conscious at the time he wasn’t surprised.

Carina continued to act paradoxical and eventually Alex confronted her about it. Getting her to open up to him wasn’t an easy feat, but Alex was patient. Eventually Carina started crying and hugged Alex tightly.

“I did it... And then you got hurt... It’s all my fault!” Alex softly rubbed her back and tried to get her to calm down.

“We all played the games and sang the songs. It’s okay.” She let out an angry growl and pushed him away. Wiping the tears from her eyes she continued to talk.

“No- no, it’s not that... It’s not that…” Alex tilted his head to the side, waiting for her to continue. He had no idea what she meant by that.

“Mister Kicker came to me and asked who had started the games and the singing and promised if I told him that I would be allowed to go outside I didn’t know that he was going to hurt you I wouldn’t if I did but I did tell him and it’s all my fault.” She spoke quickly and without pausing. For a moment there was a stunned silence in the mines, Alex had not been the only one to hear. The silence was eventually broken by a loud shout from Alex’s left.

“What?! How c-”

“Chip, not now.” Chip quickly shut up after Alex told him to. Carina was shaking and new tears were rolling down her cheeks. Alex looked at her sadly and hugged her gingerly. He stroked her hair as he talked in a soft tone. A tone that was audible in the entire cavern because everyone present was dead silent.

“It’s okay, we all want to go outside. You grabbed your chance, not thinking about the ramifications. Next time, think about what your actions may mean for others.” He squeezed her a little before pulling away. Holding her at an arm’s length he looked her in the eyes.

“I forgive you.”

 

* * *

 

Alex had always been the sort of unofficial leader of the children, but since his actions towards Carina and his continuous positivity his words were taken with even more weight. It seemed that this had been the thing that Alex had needed to convince the children besides Chip to join him in his escape plan. It was fairly simple and based on two principles.

Principle one was that mister Kicker had the keys to go outside. Thus, to get those keys they needed him to come down the mines. They only knew of two reasons for mister Kicker to come down. One was to bring a new child. To wait for this could take a long time as it could take months for the next one to come down. The other reason was to check on the productivity. Alex had thought of a real easy way to get mister Kicker to come down that way. They all had to stop working at once.

The second principle was that one on one they might not be able to beat mister Kicker, but as a group they could. It didn’t matter how strong the man was, he was not going to beat all of them at once. This was why they would all hide together behind a couple of rocks while Alex would lead mister Kicker to their midst.

The plan had gone brilliantly. Mister Kicker was standing in their midst as all the children were brandishing rocks as weapons. Alex was standing on a rock, his feet about the same height as mister Kicker’s face. None of the kids were using the rocks to do any real harm though, most of them were just pushing mister Kicker around. The pushing stopped as mister Kicker slammed against the rock Alex was standing on and Alex held up his hand. All the children looked at him expectantly, waiting for what he was going to do next. Alex kneeled so it was easier to look mister Kicker in the eyes. He was about to speak when mister Kicker crumbled to the floor.

“Chip!” The boy was waving his hand around. He obviously hadn’t expected that his hit would hurt him was well. He had knocked mister Kicker unconscious. Everyone looked shocked and the silence was only broken by Chip himself.

“Someone had to do it and Alex is way too nice to do it himself.” Nothing more was said as Alex jumped down the rock and started to search through mister Kicker’s pockets to look for a key. It didn’t take long for him to find it and they all cheered as they run to the exit as one.

They ran outside to the open air, screaming and shouting in delight. They were free, finally free. Many of them hadn’t been outside for years. Many tears were shed as they thought about returning to their families or just simply lying down on the grass.


	4. Chapter 3

It took a while with child services and the police, but eventually Alex was placed in a foster family a couple of towns away from where Chip lived with his parents. There had been some troubles with placing Alex. He had told social services that he had come from Iceland, but when they tried to get him back to Iceland they were told there was no one with Icelandic citizenship matching Alex. This meant he wasn’t legally Icelandic and therefore couldn’t return without a visa. As no one had been able to figure out where Alex had come from then they just made new papers for him. Alex couldn’t answer any of the questions about those matters as he had been too young to know any of those things when he was taken and mister Kicker hadn’t kept a record.

All the children had been allowed to stay into contact and had given out addresses to one another. Alex was picked up by his foster father, Theo. He was a tall dark-haired man with a Mediterranean complexion. His black hair was wavy with little grey and his eyes were dark chocolate brown. He seemed to be a friendly, albeit odd, fellow. The jokes he told during their drive were often really bad or surreal. They did make Alex smile as it made him believe that the family he was placed in would be a fun one.

As they arrived at the house a woman walked up to greet them. She was introduced to Alex as Natalie, his foster mother. She was short with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. Alex thought that the contrast between his two foster parents was kind of funny. Theo brought up Alex’s meagre belongings to what was to be his room while Natalie showed him around the house. The house was a nice size for a small family, decorated with mismatched furniture and with a fireplace in the living room. Alex let his eyes wander as he sat down to drink and eat something. The place felt warm and homey and Alex was even more convinced that he was going to like it there.

Alex had just finished his sandwich when he heard multiple feet coming down the stairs. On the way to the house Theo had told him about the other two children there. Alex was going to have a foster sister called Rebecca and a foster brother called Joseph. Joseph was the son of Natalie and Theo by blood and Rebecca had been staying with the family for over a year now. Theo hadn’t told too much about them as he thought it better for Alex to get his first impression of them from the kids themselves. He had only been told the ages of the kids. Rebecca was a year younger than him, nine, and Joseph was five years old.

The air was knocked out of Alex’ lungs by what he could only describe as a green tornado. A look down gave him a better impression. He was being hugged by a small boy with a dinosaur hat. His hair was brown and he had hazel coloured eyes. The child grinned at him with at least one tooth missing in his mouth.

“I guess you’re Joseph?” The kid made a face of disgust and shook his head.

“Only Joseph when I am in trouble! It’s Jo.” He grinned again and squeezed Alex before letting go off him. The boy was jumping up and down as he continued talking. Alex couldn’t help himself as he jumped along with the young boy.

“Welcome to your new home! When daddy told me, we were going to have another foster sibling I was sooo excited. We could play soooo many games together!” Joseph prattled on and Alex grinned down at him. He liked the boy’s energy.

“I like dinosaurs, do you like dinosaurs? I like the triceratops the most. Sadly, they don’t have triceratops hats.” He pointed at the hat he was wearing. Indeed, it looked more like a raptor than a triceratops.

“Then why don’t you make one yourself?” Alex fanned his hands behind his head to visualise the idea. Joseph’s eyes widened at the prospect and he ran off to tell his mother about the idea. Theo gave Alex a smile before turning to the young girl standing next to him. Alex hadn’t even noticed her because of Joseph’s rather demanding presence. Her hair was short, unkempt and blonde and her eyes were tired and greyish blue.

“Uh, hi… Well, I am Rebecca, but you can call me Elvis?” Alex was confused, Elvis? That didn’t seem like your typical nickname for Rebecca.

“Why Elvis?”

“Well, it’s better than Rebecca.” She shrugged and walked closer to shake Alex’s hand. Before they could do any more than just shake hands Jo returned with a glass of some juice. This forced him to stand still and move carefully, something that seemed rather out of character.

“Why are your ears pointy?”

“Joseph…” Natalie looked a little tired. Alex wouldn’t be surprised if this was a regular occurrence.

“It’s okay. I was just born with them.” Jo blinked a couple of times before nodding, accepting the answer. Then he continued to carefully walk to a chair to sit down with his drink.

“He is always like that, you better get used to it fast.” Elvis confirmed Alex’s earlier thought of this being Jo’s normal. Being introduced to the whole family now Alex took a moment to think about it all. The family was very colourful indeed. They didn’t only mirror one another in looks, like the parents, but also in energy levels, Jo having an excess amount and Elvis running low on it. He wondered what kind of surprises they would bring. He had only known them for a few minutes and they already seemed like a special bunch, there was no knowing what other colours they would show in the long run.

 

* * *

 

By the end of the day Alex had learnt several things about his foster family. Jo was easily distracted and could go off on random tangents on whatever had just caught his fancy. Alex thought part of it could be excused because he was only five, but he was pretty sure that a major part of it was just him. Jo also had the same humour as his father and the two would make quite a pair. Natalie often seemed to be rather plain and normal, but she would too join in on the shenanigans of her husband and son. She was more of a subsurface weird person. Elvis didn’t join in as often as she preferred to be in her room. Alex therefore had seen less of what kind of person she was, but he could make an educated guess. Most of her humour was self-deprecating and that in combination with the fact that she was a foster child made Alex think she was either sad a lot or just the kind of person who preferred to be on their own.

He saw her again when dinner time arrived. Natalie told Alex that they would always eat dinner together except for days where that was impossible. Alex nodded, he thought that that was a good idea. It would give them a central moment in which they would always be together and could talk as a group. Elvis had grumbled her way downstairs, making the strong impression that she didn’t want to be there. Alex righted himself from where he had been standing on his hands and sat down at what was to be his spot. Jo had explained how everyone had their spots at the table in length before switching back to a topic he had talked about over an hour ago.

The biggest talker during dinner was Jo, to no one’s surprise. He had to be reminded to eat his food several times. In the silences that followed Natalie and Theo would make sure that both Alex and Elvis felt like they could take part of the conversation. Alex didn’t have too much trouble with that, but Elvis was prone to long lapses of silence. His foster parents seemed surprised by the amount of vegetables Alex ate compared to other food items, but they decided not to comment. They did comment however when Alex declined having some desert. Alex squirmed a little as he thought of a way to explain it. He didn’t understand exactly why, all he knew was that he shouldn’t eat it.

“Well... Uhm... My parents always taught me that processed sugar was bad for me, so I don’t eat it.” He looked at his foster family, hoping that they wouldn’t ask more questions about it. He was in luck as Natalie nodded and everyone dropped it. Well, everyone except for Jo.

“What is processed sugar?” This question turned into a whole conversation about meanings of words, but Alex’s reluctance to eat processed sugar was left alone.

After dinner Elvis quickly retreated to her room while Jo and Alex played some games in the garden. Eventually they were called inside as it was getting darker and it was time for Jo to go to bed. Jo wasn’t too happy about this as he wanted to continue playing with Alex. Alex had quickly become his new favourite thing, though no one knew for how long that would last with Jo’s fickle concentration.

“Everyone has their bedtimes, Jo. I always go to bed at eight past eight pm.” Jo wasn’t the only one surprised at this.

“You don’t want to stay up longer?” Alex shrugged at Jo’s question.

“It was the time my parents told me to go to bed. If you do not sleep enough, you won't have any energy to play the next day. You want to play tomorrow, right?” Jo seemed to contemplate this, keeping silent as his mother led him to his room. Not too long later it was getting close to eight o’clock. Just as Alex had said he would, he made his way to his room and readied himself for bed. At exactly eight past eight pm, he slid between the covers and closed his eyes to sleep.


	5. Chapter 4

Alex thought he was doing pretty well during his therapy sessions. He talked about his experiences in depth with his therapist and talked with her about the thoughts he had at those moments. She saw a little pale during some of his retellings, but Alex guessed that that wasn’t too weird. What had happened to him was rather shocking after all. Two weeks after the sessions started he was assigned a new therapist. He didn’t quite understand why, the only explanation he got was that they weren’t a great match. The man he had now didn’t pale as he told him about what happened and Alex wondered if that had anything to do with it.

 

* * *

 

It was early in the morning when Alex got out of bed. He brushed his teeth, got dressed, and went down the stairs. The only ones already downstairs were Theo and Joseph and both looked at Alex with odd expressions on their faces. Alex couldn’t really blame them for that as he was walking on his hands. He had been since he finished brushing his teeth. That morning he had wondered for how much of the day he could spend walking on his hands or otherwise upside down.

His first problem arrived when he wanted to make breakfast. It would be gross to handle food with his feet and he couldn’t reach anything with his hands.

“Uh... Alex, what are you doing?” Theo had finally overcome his surprise and was now hunched down next to Alex. Alex grinned up at him and explained what he was doing and why he was doing it. Theo sighed while he shook his head and made some breakfast for Alex. Jo had been giggling in the corner the entire time. While Alex munched his breakfast, now standing on one hand, Jo walked over.

“Look, I can also walk on my hands.” With a big grin on his face Jo put his hands underneath his feet and waddled around. This made Alex laugh and flip back to his feet. Forget wanting to know how much of the day he could walk on his hands, he had a much better idea.

“Hey Jo, you want to learn how to stand and walk on your hands like I do?”

Jo was very enthusiastic about this idea and together they convinced Elvis to join as well. The three of them practiced together in the garden till lunch time.

 

* * *

 

School seemed like an exciting thing to Alex. His parents had ‘home-schooled’ him, but now he would be going to a school. It had taken a while for Alex to catch up with his peers, something he did through tutoring before he went to school. His tutoring had also included him learning how to read and write in English, something he hadn’t learnt during his time in the mines. He had grown his hair out a little so it would cover the tips of his ears. He wasn’t ashamed of them, but he didn’t really feel the need to be questioned about them by every new person he met.

He soon learnt that school was hard. It wasn’t the material that made it difficult for him, it was the fact that he had to sit still. During tutoring he had been able to stand up and do something every once in a while, but at school he had to sit still in a chair for hours. Well, he could move in between classes, but the other pupils looked at him funny if he did cartwheels in the halls. He also soon learnt that you weren’t allowed to do those from the janitor.

There was one class he was looking forward to a lot, PE. Elvis had explained the abbreviation to him and the idea of exercising with all his classmates seemed like such a fun idea. He was so excited that when he wanted to run to the PE building (one of his classmates had pointed it out earlier), he ran into a door. The worry his fellow students felt for him was soon dissipated as Alex stood up again and ran further, jumping over benches as he did so.

The game they were going to play was called rugby. The other kids clearly already knew how this sport worked, but the PE teacher was patient enough to explain the rules to Alex. Some boys laughed behind his back, but he paid them no mind. He didn’t know how he felt about tackling people since that could hurt them. He was still vibrating with excitement though as the class was split up into two teams and the starting sign was given. It took a while before Alex finally got his hands on the ball, as he really couldn’t get himself to tackle anyone. Once he got it he started to run to the side of the field where he was supposed to score. He was having a great time as he jumped over and ducked past students trying to tackle him. Eventually he jumped into a roll to score. Alex looked up at the people behind him. He wasn’t even really out of breath though he had crossed half the field. Most of the students and even the teacher gave him a blank look. The bigger part of his own team was still on the other side of the field and a few mouths were hanging open.

“I think you should be my second referee.” The teacher’s decision confused Alex and he tilted his head to the side.

“But I don’t know the rules that well.”

“You’re breaking the game. You sure you haven’t played rugby before?”

After that first PE class their teacher always made sure there would be something to do for Alex if he turned out to be ridiculously good at what they were doing that day. Most of the time this meant Alex had to be the referee. Some games he was allowed to join in because he was held back by a lack of experience, like field hockey, but he was a quick learner so soon he would be refereeing in those games as well. This caused PE to be a lot less enjoyable than Alex had hoped, but it wasn’t bad either.

One of the games he very much enjoyed even as referee was dodgeball. This was because the other kids would throw the balls at him instead of the other team to see if they could hit him. It was pretty funny, but it annoyed their teacher. Eventually they had reached a compromise on it by letting Alex run around on the line in between the two halves of the field so that any ball thrown at Alex was also thrown in the direction of the opposite team.

Although Alex was odd he soon found friends at his new school. He was pretty popular even and people started to follow his lead just as the other kids had done in the mines. He was also well liked by his teachers, even though he could barely sit still in class. It was probably because he was actually interested in what they were teaching and asked in-depth questions.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Elvis!” Elvis looked up from what she was doing in her room to see Alex peeking around the corner of the door with a big grin on his face.

“Uh, hi Alex.” She gave him a small smile in return.

“I was wondering if you wanted to join me and Jo in some games outside.” As if on cue Jo peeked around the door as well, a triceratops hat now adorning his head. Elvis looked at the two of them for a moment before shaking her head.

“No, thanks.” Alex’s smile dropped a little, but he wasn’t deterred. He walked into the room and sat down next to Elvis, Jo following in his footsteps.

“Oh, yeah, go ahead, make yourself comfortable.” This cheered Alex up as he completely missed the sarcasm.

“We could also do a game inside if you want to! We just want to spend time with you.” Elvis blinked a couple of time in surprise and stared at Alex. She looked around the room and eventually located a chess board.

“We could play chess.” Alex tilted his head to the side, he had heard of that game before.

“I don’t know how to play that.” Elvis seemed to deflate a little and Alex quickly continued.

“But I love learning new games! You could teach me how to do it as we play.” He grinned at her and she smiled back. Jo had lost interest pretty quickly and started to dance in the middle of the room. There was no music playing, but this didn’t seem to be a problem for him.

The two of them played together for a while, enjoying the brain game. Alex would move around while it was Elvis’ turn. She didn’t seem to mind, she knew how hard it was for Alex to sit still for even a full meal. Jo would pop in every once in a while, to talk to them or just wander around the room. They were about halfway through all the pieces when Jo came into the room holding a plate full of snacks.

“Mommy made us these!” They decided to pause their games for the snacks. As they were eating Alex decided to study the room some more. This was where Elvis spent most of her time so Alex taught it would be a good indicator for her character. It was messy with band posters on the wall. There was a guitar standing in the corner and Alex recognised a couple of fantasy books. He understood that there was plenty to do inside the room, but he didn’t quite understand why someone would limit themselves to such a small place willingly.

“Hey, why are you always in here?” Elvis looked at him in surprise.

“You really want to know?”

“Yeah, why else would I have asked?” Elvis pondered about this for a while before answering.

“I don’t know why... It just feels like if I go outside bad things will happen. I would only be disappointed.” Alex is silent for a while as he thinks about her answer. Eventually he nods and smiles at her.

“It’s okay to be scared of things. Jo and I will always be open to you joining us in our outside games, but I think we can come up with things to do here with you too.” Before Elvis can answer that the mood is broken by Jo letting some food drop on the floor. He was about to put it back in his mouth when Alex stops him.

“Ew, that is gross Jo. Throw that in the trash.”

“No, don’t throw it at me!” Elvis laughed at the two confused faces of Alex and Jo.

 

* * *

 

Alex loved to challenge himself, to try and push himself further. Some of the things he did were a little ridiculous though. Elvis would sometimes tell him he should just continue doing things like a normal person, but being able to throw your toothbrush over your shoulder and into its holding cup sounded so cool.

He stood in front of the bathroom mirror with his toothbrush in his hand. It wasn’t morning or evening, no he was just there to practice. It was a sunny day and Theo was mowing the front lawn outside.

Squaring his shoulders he threw the toothbrush behind him, hoping to hear the noise of it landing inside the holder. He waited for a couple of seconds, the only thing he heard was Theo turning off the lawnmower. Maybe the lawnmower had been too loud for Alex to be able to hear the toothbrush land.

He looked behind him to see where the toothbrush was. To his surprise he couldn’t find it anywhere, where had it gone?

“Alex?” It was Theo calling for him from outside. Alex looked out of the window and grinned at his foster father.

“Yes?” Theo didn’t look very amused. He had one hand in his side and the other one was waving something at Alex.

“Care to explain why your toothbrush came sailing out of the window?” Oh... So that’s where it had gone.


	6. Chapter 5

A year had passed since Alex became part of a foster family, a year since he had led the escape from the mines. Even though part of him still missed his parents, he had enjoyed it a lot. Through this time the contacts he kept with the other mine children had started to water, much to his regret, as many of them were busy with their own lives. Only Chip still sent letters on a regular basis, to which Alex happily replied.

Alex also had made a quite some friends at his school and in his neighbourhood. He was only close with a couple of them, there were just too many people he considered friends to be very close to everyone. Elvis told him that this was what being popular meant, Alex didn’t quite understand why that mattered. She then tried to explain Alex how the social structures of schools worked and how he, as a popular boy, should not be hanging out with her, one of the weird kids. Alex didn’t get any of it and decided that as long as there wasn’t a written law or rule about this he could ignore it.

He woke up especially early on the day that marked his first full year with his foster family. He hugged Theo especially tightly as he got into the kitchen and thanked him for the year. Theo seemed quite confused before Alex told him what day it was. Theo wasn’t the best at remembering important days and Alex was pretty sure Jo had inherited that trait.

Alex and Theo were already halfway through their respective breakfasts before anyone else came down the stairs. Elvis came down first, having to be at school at the same time as Alex. She greeted them both with a small tired smile as she went to make her own breakfast. They all could already hear Natalie and Jo upstairs. It seemed that they were at a disagreement what was appropriate to wear to school for Jo. Alex was doing push-ups by the time they finally made it downstairs. Natalie also got a hug and a thank you from Alex, but unlike Theo she did understand why.

Though his foster family didn’t make a big deal out of him being with them for a year, his friends at school did. Through the day their ideas of what he should do in celebration became crazier and crazier, never agreeing with one another. During this conversation any input from Alex was completely ignored. During lunch he tried to convey his problem across the cafeteria to Elvis, who was sitting with her two friends. She just gave him a shrug in response.

At the end of the day the group had finally come to a decision. Alex was to go from school to his house without walking two consecutive steps. He was allowed to do flips, walk on his hands, do cartwheels, and anything else that didn’t involve his feet hitting the ground. Any objection Alex could find to this plan had already been thought about. Alex had missed that part of the conversation because he had either been listening to the teachers or had left them to talk to Elvis and her friends.

They assured safety by sending two people, Mauro and Clara, ahead to stop the traffic when they had to cross streets. Now that Alex knew he wasn’t going to get hit by a car he wondered about his backpack. It was filled with books and if he did any acrobatics with it on his back he would be brought of balance and if the bag accidentally opened during the flipping his school supplies would spray all over the place. This problem was easily fixed by one of his friends, Oliver, taking his back from him. Oliver’s face showed instant regret once he took the bag, it was really heavy.

“What do you put in here, rocks?” Everyone ignored him because they all knew that Oliver didn’t take all of the books for the day with him every day.

Before Alex took off he did a couple of stretches and jumps as a warmup. He knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to start a challenge like his friends had given him without a proper warmup. He would cramp up in the middle of it and that would ruin the whole thing. Once warmed up he did a cartwheel to gain some speed and off he went. He was going pretty fast so his gaggle friends had to run to keep up with him. He sometimes stopped to walk on his hands so the traffic stoppers could get ahead of him again and to re-orientate himself. Doing a lot of flips and cartwheels was fine for short distances, but on a long distance like this it could become quite disorientating.

When Alex would look back on it later he would always giggle. It must have been such a silly sight to see an eleven-year-old come by in the way he had. His friends following him and cheering him on would probably only have made the scene more odd. At the time he was doing it he didn’t pay too much mind to the people on the streets. He was concentrating too hard on his landings and what moves he would do next to take in too much of his surroundings.

The only times he paid it any mind was when he was walking on his hands. Then the cheers from his friends would be more than just background noise, he could actually hear some of the words they were shouting at him, and he could see how some of the bystanders stopped whatever they were doing to watch. He would greet the few he recognised, though he doubted that they could hear him over his friends. He didn’t take too much notice of the strangers that saw him and what they would think of him. The people he knew were well aware of his acrobatics.

Only one person caught his attention while he was doing flips, but that was mostly because of the way he was dressed. Alex didn’t have a lot of time to study the stranger, but the few seconds that he saw him he could see that his entire attire was colour coded. He was dressed in completely yellow with some brown. He quickly pushed the man out of his mind again, he didn’t need to fall flat on his face just because someone had decided to dress in only yellow for one day.

Alex ended the challenge in style by jumping over the fence of his foster home with a flip, his hands on one of the stone supports. He made some deep bows to his friends with a grin on his face while they clapped and cheered. All things considered he wasn’t even that dizzy or tired. Mauro and Clara seemed more tired from running ahead all the time. He shared some high fives with them and got his bag back from Oliver. It didn’t take long for Jo to be hanging from his leg. Apparently, the boy had looked out of the window when he had heard Alex’s friends and had seen the end of the acrobatics. Some other people in the street also looked out of their window to see what was causing all the ruckus, but they had gone back to what they had been doing after they had determined Alex and his friends to be the source of the noise.

Eventually Natalie came outside as well to see what the big deal was. This seemed to be the sign for Alex’s friends to go their own ways. They all said goodbye to one another while Jo told Natalie what he had seen through the window with an excessive amount of movements and whooshing noises.

After his friends had gone Alex tried to make his way to his room, but this was made difficult by Jo hanging from his leg. The young boy seemed to be vibrating with excitement, Alex was surprised he could cling to anyone’s leg at all.

“Let’s go do something!” Alex grinned at Jo, who was now running around him in circles. If Alex was honest, and he was, he would say that Jo running circles around him was more dizzying than the flips had been. He didn’t say it because he was a little distracted by answering.

“Okay, you get Elvis. I’m just going to put my bag away first. We will see one another again downstairs.” Alex had barely finished his sentence before Jo ran off to get Elvis. He frowned for three seconds, was Elvis even home yet? She probably was. Elvis had the tendency to go home from school the second the bell went and Alex didn’t remember passing her on his way home.

Alex put his bag away in his room as he had told Jo he would do and went back downstairs to see if the boy had gotten Elvis yet. They came down after him, Jo pretty much dragging Elvis behind him while he was talking a mile a minute about whatever train of thought he was on now. All he was really able to make up from it was that he thought there should be gummy bears with stripes.

Alex knew that Jo wasn’t dragging Elvis because she didn’t actually want to join them and that he was making her join anyways. Elvis was very good at saying no and it was just physically impossible of Jo to force Elvis to go anywhere. Jo also knew what the word no meant, no matter how excited he was. It probably had more to do with Jo wanting to walk faster or even run in his excitement and Elvis wasn’t going to. This wasn’t something that was rare for the two of them. It always made Alex think of someone walking an overly excited dog.

* * *

 

New things always excited Alex, so when he heard they finally had a new PE teacher his friends could not stop him from prattling on about what their new teacher may be like. They had not been informed of the new guy’s name, just that he was there and that classes would resume like normal. Their old teacher had stopped due to his home life and they had been taught by whichever teacher was available instead. This meant that they often had someone giving PE who wasn’t a PE teacher. It had made the classes rather odd and disjointed. At some points Alex had even pretty much taken over so that they wouldn’t be playing soccer or running laps again.

His friends hadn’t been too surprised when they saw how ecstatic he was for proper PE classes to begin again. PE was, to no one’s surprise, his favourite class after all. Just like the first time he had PE he ran into a door in his enthusiasm to get there. The difference was that instead of looking shocked and worried, the people around him just laughed and shook their heads.

Today was also the first day they were having PE inside a sports hall this year. As the children spilled from the changing rooms into the hall they immediately noticed the man who could only be their new PE teacher. He was hard to miss in his all yellow ensemble. The yellow colour scheme reminded Alex of that stranger he had seen in passing while doing flips. He idly wondered if it was the same man or just a strange coincidence.

His outfit might have screamed sunshine, but his face certainly didn’t. The few girls who had been commenting on his looks were quickly shut up with a glare. They did have something to talk about though. Besides being completely dressed in yellow, he was also short with broad shoulders and had an odd moustache. He was also wearing a yellow beanie, which probably meant he was one of those teachers that didn’t mind you wearing hats in their class. Or he could be a hypocrite, Alex didn’t know yet. He was going for the former reason though as he liked to think the best of people.

Once everyone was there the man locked the changing room doors. By this time the children had spread to amuse themselves while they waited for the class to start. One loud whistle from their new teacher was enough to shut everyone up and make their heads turn towards him.

“Come closer, I am not going to lose my voice during our first class.” His voice was authoritative in a way no one dared to disobey him. It wasn’t a mean voice, just one that said that the owner wasn’t open for objections. He spoke again once the students were close enough for his liking.

“As you already know, I am your new PE teacher. My surname Íþróttaálfurinn, but I know none of you will be able to pronounce that. So, you can call me by my first name, Níu.” Alex tried not to snigger at the name, but he failed. The man had to be pulling their legs with that name.

“You, what are you laughing at? I didn’t think any of you children would be so disrespectful to laugh at their teacher’s name.” ‘Níu’ was staring at Alex while he was grinning.

“Well, aren’t you joking? Because your name translates to Nine Sports elf in Icelandic.” This caused the class to erupt into laughter, but Níu didn’t. Alex started to feel kind of bad as the teacher wasn’t laughing. It dawned on Alex that he probably really was called that and now Alex had made a joke out of it.

Alex looked up to Níu to apologise, but he didn’t look mad at all. Not mad about the laughing students or at Alex for interrupting him. He looked more intrigued and confused than anything. A smirk replaced those expressions as he shook his head.

“So, you speak Icelandic? I wasn’t made aware of any students being able to when I told the headmaster I was Icelandic myself.” Before Alex could answer himself, Oliver answered, still wheezing from laughter.

“Can’t you hear it in his accent, it’s not too difficult to hear it?” This was the moment they all learnt that Níu didn’t appreciate students talking out of turn. Oliver was told to do push-ups by the wall with the reason that Níu had not been talking to him. The class quieted very quickly after that, none wanting to have to do push-ups themselves. Oliver complained once and only once. His complaining was deterred by Níu increasing the number of push-ups he had to do harshly, effectively shutting him up.

Níu started to say something in Icelandic, but as soon as Alex could interject he said it was rude for them to speak in a language no one else present could understand. The teacher glared at him, but Alex didn’t budge. He was surprised when he wasn’t punished with push-ups as well for speaking against Níu as the man continued the class in English. The entire class was sent off to run some laps around the hall except for Alex. Even though Níu hadn’t looked particularly mad while they had laughed he still didn’t appreciate it. Now that the other kids were running, he and Alex did talk in Icelandic. They mostly talked about the land itself and the coming class. Alex enjoyed talking in his first language as he hadn’t been able to do so for quite some time.

After the laps they resumed the class as planned by Níu. Alex was pleasantly surprised as the man seemed far more skilled than anyone they had had before. Their previous PE teacher loved sports, but still managed to be less good at most things than Alex himself. He only learnt rules to games from him, rules he could also have learnt from other students. There hadn’t been much about learning new techniques, something only someone skilled could teach them.

Another major difference between the two teachers was that Níu allowed Alex to join in the games the previous teacher hadn’t allowed him to preform him. When someone told Níu why Alex had not been allowed to join in he said he knew of those stories. Apparently, the man had been informed about all of his students and Alex in particular. Instead of making Alex the referee he made the opposing team one or two students larger and told them to just try harder. Alex didn’t fully agree with the way Níu worded it, but he was just too excited about being allowed to join to think too much about it.

Time flies when you are having fun and soon the PE class was almost over. Níu instructed the students to clean up the equipment quite some time earlier than their previous teacher would have done. Some students murmured that this was probably because Níu wasn’t familiar with how long it would take them to clean up and that they would thus be allowed to go earlier.

This didn’t turn out to be the truth. After they had cleaned up all the equipment some students trying to walk off learnt that the changing rooms were still closed. When questioned Níu simply answered that the class wasn’t over yet. To Alex’s delight ‘not being over yet’ translated to a cooldown. Alex knew cooldowns were important to avoid muscle strains from his parents, but the previous teacher had never done them with the class. Alex always made an effort to make his friends do cooldowns after PE once he learnt the teacher wasn’t going to do them after Alex asked about it. He didn’t want his friends, or anyone else for that matter, to suffer from muscle strains after intensive classes. Alex had also taught Elvis and Jo (more like trying to teach in Jo’s case, but Alex was patient) how to do stretches themselves.

Níu seemed quite disappointed with the fact that only a few people knew how to do a proper cooldown. Although the students did copy Níu’s stretches once they had reached that part, they mostly focussed on what seemed to be a stretch off between their new teacher and Alex. As Níu didn’t seem to mind they became more bold and started cheering for Alex, hoping he could outstretch Níu. They eventually even stopped as the two of them started to do stretches that were just plain impossible for them. It seemed Níu wasn’t bothered, he was enjoying the perceived challenge. They were pretty much equals until Níu did something Alex hadn’t done before. Practice makes perfect and as Alex hadn’t had any he wasn’t as good as Níu. Everyone laughed good naturedly and Níu finally opened the doors to the changing rooms.

Before Alex could join his friends, he was taken aside by Níu. Alex bit his lip a little as he wondered what the teacher wanted to talk about with him. It couldn’t be that he wanted Alex to be referee all the time. He was good at it, because he was impartial, but Níu had made his thoughts about the matter clear already. Alex was to join in on the games, no amount of whining was going to change that.

Curiously the man just asked Alex to lift up his hair. He was speaking in Icelandic again. Alex shrugged, the teacher was probably curious about his ears. Most people were. It was the main reason for Alex letting his hair grow as far as it did. It wasn’t long enough to put in a ponytail, but it covered his ears. Alex was an open person, but even he got tired of the constant questions and stares. He expected Níu to ask the same questions everyone else did once he had lifted his hair up, but the man surprised him with his reaction. He gave a courteous nod, something Alex took as a sign he could drop his hair again.

_ “I guessed as much. What is one of you doing here on their own?” _ A slight smirk appeared on Níu’s lips as he looked down on a confused Alex. What was he supposed to say to that? Alex wasn’t even sure what the man was implying.

_ “Uh... I was here for PE with the rest of my class?” _ Was that what Níu had been asking about? Probably not, because that would be silly. Alex wondered if he was talking about him being in a foster family, but that didn’t make much sense either. His answer only seemed to amuse the man further as he let out a snort.

_ “I was more implying about someone of your kind, not you as a student. And with here I meant in between those who aren’t like you. Don’t tell me you don’t know that those ears aren’t just a birth defect. What I have learnt about you today and from many other teachers combined with your looks make it very clear to me what you are. The last kid I met that was different didn’t know he was different and that didn’t turn well for anyone.” _ Níu had an odd look on his face for just a fraction of a second and Alex wondered if he had imagined it all together. It had been a mix between anger and sadness, something that you didn’t see a lot. Alex thought for a moment before he answered. This wasn’t something one should speak lightly about. Even though he was pretty sure no one was around and that if they were they would not be able to understand him, Alex was still careful with how much he said.

_ “I know what I am. My parents were killed and those who found me were unable to return me to my kind. Not that they knew what that meant. I live in a replacement family now.” _ Two things had made this explanation kind of complicated. One was that he had been repeatedly told that he shouldn’t tell everyone what had happened to him exactly. Apparently, it wasn’t appropriate conversational material. This always made Alex unsure how much he should share. The second thing was that he didn’t know the Icelandic words for ‘social services’ and ‘foster family’. Those were not words he had ever used before he had been taken by mister Kicker. Níu either didn’t mind or didn’t notice this and nodded.

“Interesting... You better get going though. I don’t want to have to explain another teacher why you are late for their class on my first day. Have to test the waters first before I start to shake things up.” Alex had no idea what that last bit meant, but he took it as his cue to leave. As he made his way back to the changing rooms Alex turned back to look at Níu one last time. The man was staring off into the distance with a small frown on his face, obviously thinking deeply. Alex wondered how much of a difference it would make to his life now that there was someone who knew. He also wondered what kind of changes Níu’s arrival would mean in general. The man smelt of change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back. Also, He's somehow still a better PE teacher than any of the ones we had to deal with.


	7. Chapter 6

Alex had been extremely excited when he discovered that Níu had started teaching advanced PE classes. They were described to be classes for those who were very good at athletics and wanted to learn more. Alex had written himself down without much thought, this was perfect for him. He loved challenges and sports, how could it be bad if the two got combined? These extra classes could replace normal PE classes if the participant wanted, but Alex was planning on attending both extra and normal PE classes unless it would get him into problems with homework.

A week after the announcement the first extra PE classes took place. Alex had yet again managed to walk into something in his excitement, something that amused his friends greatly. They never stopped finding it funny that he ran into things when excited. One of the reasons why Alex was so excited was because during normal classes Níu seemed to know what he was doing. The man understood the technicalities behind sports. Alex looked at all the other students participating in the extra PE classes. He noticed that they were of different ages and different classes. Alex thought it would be a lot of fun to interact with students he normally wouldn’t. Once all of them were in the sports hall Níu told them that now that they were in the advanced class that there would be no reason for them to be lazy or not try their best. This seemed rather redundant to Alex, why would they be here if they wanted to do those things?

The class was started off with the basics. Níu had decided that he couldn’t teach them more if they weren’t doing the basics correctly. He said that most people seemed to bend their legs too much during cartwheels or just do them too crooked in general and that would cause them to fall over. That was why he was starting with teaching them how to do cartwheels properly. Some kids tried to protest, saying that they all knew how to do those already but they were quickly shut down by Níu.

“There are two reasons as to why you are going to do as I say. One, I used to be an acrobat and thus know very well what I am talking about. And two, I am your teacher so you should just listen to me.” This was very effective as it also made very clear to those who didn’t have Níu for PE that he didn’t stand for having his actions questioned.

As the rest of the class started to do the required cartwheels on some matts that had been already laid out, Alex did as well but with some flips at the ends of them. He could see that Níu had been right about many of the students not doing cartwheels properly, but he had been taught how to do them by his father and his father had been really good at them.

After having helped the other kids improve on their cartwheel skills Níu sighed and turned to Alex. He took the teenager to the side and spoke in Icelandic to make the conversation even more private.

_ “I can see that even in this class you’ll be way above the material most of the time. I thought we could come to an arrangement. If you can help me during these classes and maybe regular classes as well I’ll go teach you some things on the side. Need to keep you challenged as well.” _ Alex got extremely excited about the proposition Níu made and agreed without hesitation. He had always liked teaching other kids the things he could do and the idea of getting some ‘private’ lessons from Níu so he could improve his own skill was great as well. Alex could see no negatives with the idea. After their little conversation Níu sent Alex back to join the rest of the class again.

 

* * *

 

Today was an exciting day for Alex. He had been helping out during the advanced PE classes and the PE classes of his regular class, but Níu had asked him to help in other classes as well. It had taken a while for the idea to get approved by the school, making Alex Níu’s official assistant. It had now been a year since Níu had come to teach at their school and Alex had grown a couple of centimetres. He was still shorter than the teacher, who wasn’t very tall either, but he at least wasn’t the same height as kids three years younger than him. It didn’t bother him all that much though, his entire family had been pretty short as far as he could remember. It was the first day of the new school year and Níu had informed Alex that he hadn’t taught anyone from this particular class before.

More and more students came out of the changing rooms and joined the two outside. Quite a lot of them send confused glances in their direction. Alex guessed that they were both confused by his presence and Níu’s fashion choices. Níu clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention once he checked that all the changing rooms were empty and locked them. He first introduced himself before turning to Alex.

“And this will be my assistant Alex, if I am busy elsewhere on the field or in any other way unavailable you can ask him for help. You’ll also have to listen to anything he says just like you have to listen to me. Are there any questions?” Someone in the back of the group, who obviously thought they were funny going by the smile they were wearing, put their hand up. Without being given permission to speak by Níu they asked their question.

“So, we’re going to be taught by short and shorter?” A large portion of the class either laughed or snorted at the comment, including Alex. Níu didn’t think it was very funny though and the class clown was made to do push ups. This made everyone go silent again, but it was already too late as they got the same punishment as Alex’s class did from laughing at his name and they all had to run laps.

Alex had great fun during the entirety of the class. As there were now two of them Níu could concentrate on the more sporty kids while Alex could help those not as inclined. He loved motivating other people and show them how much fun moving could be. The smiles he got in return showed him that he wasn’t doing a too shabby of a job. It also meant that he was back on referee duty, but he didn’t mind that at all now. He wasn’t missing out on doing sports this time, he was doing extra work instead.

 

* * *

 

Alex was standing in front of Níu’s home early in the morning. The man had talked Theo and Natalie in letting him help Alex burn off some excess energy. They had been unsure at first, but when Alex had told them he liked the idea they had let him go. With all the extra things Níu had taught him he was even more all over the place than he had been before. They had even tested him for ADHD, but that had been negative. Alex knocked on Níu’s front door with his foot as he was using his hands to stand on. He flipped back to his feet as he waited for Níu to open the door. The wait wasn’t very long and soon Níu was leading him through his house and into his garden.

They started off with some stretches and warming up moves. They did this because Níu had planned quite the run and neither of them wanted to get muscle cramps half way through. Shortly thereafter they went back to the street again to do said run. Alex for once had to actually make an effort to be able to keep up with someone, which he thought was a great new experience. This also meant that he was just running and not doing flips and other tricks like he normally did.

Once they reached the edge of the forest Níu changed direction to a field nearby to do some other exercises. Amongst them were running in place, a couple of sprints, some push-ups and a few jumping jacks.

“Come on, Alex. Don’t start slacking off now.” Níu said this as he noticed Alex getting a little slower. This was not what Alex was doing, though. In fact, Níu was actually succeeding in making Alex feel a little tired. If they continued like this Alex would sleep even better than he usually did, maybe he would even manage to sit still during dinner. They both drank some water from bottles Níu had brought with him before continuing to run. They were yet again going at speeds that prohibited Alex to do any of his usual tricks.

Back at Níu’s home they did some more stretches and moves to cool down. Their little exercise excursion had taken up quite some of Alex’s day and he would probably have to spend the rest of the day on homework if he wanted to finish all of it on time. Níu handed Alex an apple to eat on his way back home and Alex was surprised he didn’t feel the urge to do flips, cartwheels or any other type of acrobatics on his way home. He did feel a little more energetic after his apple, he guessed that was because fruits gave you energy.

 

* * *

 

It had taken quite some time and awkward moments, but as Alex looked into the bathroom mirror he was happy that he finally had enough upper lip hair to do what he wanted to do with it. He wanted to style his moustache in the same way as he could remember his father having it. He looked into the mirror and started the styling process, carefully shaving hairs away in certain places while putting product in others. He did his very best to emulate the style he remembered from when he was much younger.

He smiled at himself as he looked at the finished product. He really liked it. A sad sigh escaped his lips, he really did look a lot like his dad. No one besides himself knew this as there were no photos, but his memories said he did. He quickly brushed his teeth and threw his toothbrush back into its holder. With one last grin to himself in the mirror he made his way to his bedroom to get dressed.

He went downstairs once he was dressed to get himself some breakfast. Alex greeted Theo who did a spit take after looking up at him. Alex patted him on the back while he coughed from the fluids going down the wrong way.

“Are you sure you want to go out with that on your upper lip?” Alex went to make himself some breakfast and was quiet for a moment before he answered.

“Oh, my father used to have a moustache like this. I thought it would be a nice homage to him to have one as well. Not sure for how long I’ll be keeping it yet though.” It was the truth, Alex thought he didn’t have any reason to tell a lie. Theo nodded, understanding his reasoning and that Alex was not going to change his mind no matter what objections he might raise. Alex had made quite clear over the years that even though his parents were dead they were still very dear to him. In the end they talked about the news like they did any regular morning before the other occupants of the house woke up.

 

* * *

 

Alex was a little confused when instead of going to Níu’s garden for a warmup, Níu placed him on the sofa and told him to wait while he went into another room. This was rather unusual as they always went straight to the warm up after Alex’s arrival. Alex didn’t have to wait long as Níu came back with a drink in his hand.

“Today, we are going to face your biggest weakness.” Alex’s eyes widened. What was Níu going on about? Alex shuffled nervously with his feet as he tried to understand what Níu meant. He must have been pretty obvious with his confusion as Níu sighed.

“Just drink this, I’ll explain it afterwards. You will have to trust me with this.” Alex nodded and took the plastic cup. He trusted Níu, but he still felt a little nervous. The way the older man had spoken sounded so ominous.

Alex shrugged and quickly downed whatever liquid Níu had handed to him. There hadn’t been a lot of the liquid so Alex finished it very quickly. It tasted very sweet and had this strange thing that made his tongue tingle. He sighed and put the cup back on the table.

“Well, that was-” Before Alex could even try finishing the entire sentence the world started to get fuzzy around him. He felt all the energy get drained from his body at once and it soon became impossible for him to stay in an upright position. Everything went black as he lost consciousness.

He awoke to the smell of chlorine and the taste of orange. He blinked groggily as he chewed on the piece of orange that was inside his mouth. This made him feel a lot better and he sat up straight again.

“What... What was that?” Níu shook his head and smirked down at Alex.

“You just had your, I will assume first, sugar meltdown.” Sugar? Had he just ingested refined sugar?

“What? But my parents said I should never consume refined sugar.” Níu seemed to scoff at his answer.

“Well, they were right, but they never told you why. Well, this is why. Elves like you faint when they consume refined sugar and should therefore avoid it at all costs. If you still happen to go into a meltdown it is very important that you consume either fruits or vegetables to get on top of it again.” Alex blinked a couple of times trying to take in what Níu had just told him. He wasn’t particularly happy with what the older man had done. Couldn’t Níu just have told him instead of making him go through it? He didn’t out this annoyance with any words and just nodded. He also ignored the sting at the insulting term, he knew that ‘elf’ wasn’t the proper name for his species.

“Well… It feels awful.”

 

* * *

 

The cafeteria was upside down. This was because Alex was standing on his hands, not because the world had flipped somehow. It wasn’t a rare occurrence so no one was really looking at it anymore. Eventually he flipped upright again to sit down with his friends to eat lunch, regular meals were very important. They were interrupted by a girl, Angelique if Alex remembered correctly, tapping Alex on his shoulder. Angelique didn’t even wait to exchange pleasantries and went straight to business.

“Tatiana asked me to talk to you because she likes you.” Alex looked at her and tilted his head. If Tatiana liked him why wouldn’t she just come to talk to him instead?

“Well, I think she is a nice person. We could get to know each other better and maybe we could become friends.” He grinned at Angelique, if that was her name. She just giggled and shook her head.

“She wants to know if you want to go out with here some time.” He continued to smile as his friend laughed.

“Well of course. If she says when I’ll see who else can come and we could all become friends!” It seemed like a great idea to Alex. He loved making new friends. If it involved playing games outside it would be even better. Oliver was crying with laughter at this point and many of his other friends were laughing at well. Alex thought it was pretty rude for them to laugh at the girl’s attempt to become one of his friends. Angelique seemed to become annoyed, Alex would probably too if he was laughed at.

“She wants a date, okay?” Alex grin brightened and his friends became silent. There seemed to be some tension in the air, but Alex thought it was probably Mauro doing something weird. He searched in his bag and then opened the small box of dates in front of Angelique.

“She is lucky I got a box with me today! Here you go, tell her she doesn’t need to be afraid to ask such things from me.” He gave her one of her brightest grins, but instead of taking one of the dates Angelique groaned in frustration. She turned away, muttering under her breath, leaving Alex with an open box of dates. All of his friends burst out laughing and Alex just ate one of the dates in his confusion, hoping that someone would explain to him what just went wrong.

 

* * *

 

Alex knocked on Níu’s door a bit nervously. The man had told him that they were going to do some special training today. That usually meant learning how to look through glamours, but as Alex had mastered that he was confused what they would be doing that day. He really hoped that it was nothing like experiencing a sugar meltdown again. As Níu called it a special training session Alex was guessing that they weren’t going to go running.

They were staring at one another, now at pretty much equal height, in Níu’s living room. Níu rolled his shoulders and sighed before motioning for Alex to be ready.

“So, Alex, today I am going to teach you another thing you would have learnt back in your elven community in Iceland. As I have told you before, I want you to miss out as little as possible of the teachings you would have gotten there.” Níu then extended his arms towards Alex and smirked. Alex just stood there in confusion as he had no idea what the older man was going to do.

Níu first closed his fists and Alex could see the concentration in his face. As he opened his hands again, Alex nostrils were bombarded with the smell of chlorine. The smell washed over him and Alex quickly discovered that it had become impossible for him to move.

“Now, try and move, Alex. I can hold this for pretty long, so you have plenty of time to break through it.” The way Alex was feeling was like nothing he had ever experienced before. He was always very active and kept his body from getting stiff at all times. Maybe this was like that sleep paralysis thing Elvis once mentioned. Alex tried to get his body back into motion with all his might, but it was completely impossible. He let out a whining sound as he was getting stressed and desperate.

“Concentrate! You need to try harder or you will never be able to break through simple spells like this one.” The teenager tried to convey the fact that he was actually trying, but as he couldn’t move his lips the only audible sound coming from him was a whine. As he started to panic about his situation and his inability to communicate he was suddenly let go. He was able to save himself from meeting the floor with his face with his arms and he sat up on his knees.

“I did it?” Alex didn’t feel too certain and one look at Níu’s face told him he was right to feel that way. The man was not impressed.

“No, you didn’t. I could feel that you were getting stressed so I let you go. You could have seriously hurt yourself that way. This isn’t some glamour where you can see through it if you just look hard enough at the right places or something you can fight with brute force. Go, stand up and try again. Stay calm and concentrate.” Níu motions for Alex to rise from his knees and the teenager does so.

Soon both the incapability to move and the smell of chlorine returned. Alex had never been good at standing still and now that he was forced to, he felt like all his energy was getting stored up and that he was going to explode soon. He breathed out through his nose and tried to stay calm. He had to concentrate on breaking the spell and not just forcing his muscles to move. Maybe he should start small, begin with trying to wiggle his fingers.

It took many attempts, but eventually Alex managed to take a couple of steps before he got too excited and ended up being incapable to move again. Níu seemed to be less impressed and made Alex continue their little training session after their lunch. He made pretty clear that he believed Alex would get it eventually if they just did it often enough. At the end of the day he was proven right as Alex was capable of walking around the room without being frozen again for a couple of minutes. Níu decided that that was enough progress for one day, but that they would continue until Alex was able to resist the spell indefinitely. He reasoned that once Alex was capable of resisting this spell completely it would be a whole lot easier for him to resist other spells as well.


	8. Chapter 7

A couple of months before Alex’s eighteenth birthday Níu arrived on the doorstep of Alex’s home without any prior warning. It was extremely early on Saturday, so early that only Alex was awake. He tried to invite Níu in for something to drink, but the man insisted that Alex went with him on a hike. Not wanting to worry his foster parents, Alex left a note before he went on the hike with Níu. He also readied a bag with food and drink really quick as he had no idea how long the hike was going to be. He would eat his breakfast on the go as he could see that Níu was getting impatient. They walked in silence for a while before Alex eventually broke it.

“So, where are we going?” Over the years the two of them had decided to talk in Icelandic when they were with just the two of them. Both of them using the opportunities to keep themselves from getting rusty in the language and Alex also took a level of comfort from it. Alex followed this question by doing a somersault. Although Níu had helped him with managing his energy he still liked to do these kinds of things whenever he could.

Níu looked at him for a moment as they walked, clearly thinking about how to exactly answer. The way the older man looked at Alex made the teenager think that whatever it was, that is was very important.

“I am going to show you something you might need and something you are going to use. We have been working for it for a while, even though you might not have noticed it fully. I am not going to explain it any further until we have arrived.” These words made Alex highly confused, but he didn’t ask any questions as Níu had made it very clear that he wasn’t going to do any explaining anymore. Alex frowned as he wondered what Níu had been going on about. He also made sure to pay attention to where they were going, before they had entered the forest Níu had been very clear that Alex should remember the way back. The reason for this became clear when they left the trail and started walking into a thicker part of the forest. Alex never went far from the path, but Níu was following his own route now. Alex could see by how the dirt had and flora had been trampled that someone, probably Níu, had walked this path many times before. As the way they were going became less and less easy to walk Alex had to forgo his acrobatics and walk. He didn’t want to twist his ankle this far into the forest because he had flipped onto a loose rock. As they continued to walk, the brushes would get thicker, the trees would get denser, and it would get darker as the canopy of trees above shut out the sun.

Alex almost started to wonder if they had somehow walked from day into night when there was a bright area ahead of them. They reached the border of a beautiful clearing, but as Alex moved to continue walking Níu put up his hand to stop him.

“Concentrate Alex, like I have taught you. Always make sure that what you are looking at is what you are supposed to see or not.” Alex nodded as he understood what Níu meant. Besides teaching Alex how to resist magic, he had also taught him how to look past glamours. He had been very persistent that you should always check and Alex thought he might have an obsession with spotting glamours. As Alex focussed on the clearing the idyllic scene changed rapidly. There were fallen trees, and all other kinds of rubble instead of grass and nice shrubberies surrounding the centre of the clearing. In said centre there seemed to be a large airship. It looked pretty old fashioned with linen and wood. The what Alex assumed to be the cabin had no windows and hung a little below the balloon. Alex thought it looked like a mix between a zeppelin and a hot air balloon.

“I can see it now...” He sounded uncertain, why was Níu showing him this? It didn’t clarify what he had said earlier on in their hike at all. Níu nodded, but didn’t respond, as he walked into the clearing and to the contraption. Alex followed him while he wondered when the crash had happened. He knew there must have been one by looking at all the rubble, even though the airship seemed fine. No one could have noticed otherwise it would have been reported. Theo always discussed the news when only he and Alex were up. The teenager concluded that it probably had something to do with Níu using magic.

Níu sat down on a rock not far away from the airship and patted an empty place next to him. Alex recognised the invitation and sat down as well.

“This is where we talk.” Was it him who had crashed here? Probably, Alex couldn’t think of any other reason for Níu to know of this place otherwise. Alex looked at his mentor as he retrieved a bottle of water from his backpack. The man looked more tired and vulnerable than he had ever done before, which meant only a little as he never looked tired or vulnerable. This only supported Alex’s theory that the man was the one who crashed the airship here. Níu scratched his chin and hummed.

“Where to start… It’s a rather long story, you see…” Níu seemed to lose himself in thought while Alex sipped his water. Alex was a patient person, he could wait till Níu was ready to talk.

“Well, I guess I could start by explaining what exactly I have been training you for. Yes, I have been training you for some purpose and not just to let you catch up with magic training you would have had in Iceland or to burn off excess energy.” Alex was only a little surprised, he expected that something had been going on, but he didn’t want to believe that that something more had been Níu’s sole reason to do it.

“You could say I was training you to be a superhero, if there is such a thing. I went through one as well many years ago.” Alex had only been slightly surprised before, but now he was stunned. Superhero training? He was staring at Níu, his bottle of water hanging before his face as he had frozen mid motion.

“It’s a title passed on from person to person. I continued to use my title instead of my own name even though I have quit the business. So yes, Níu Íþrótaálfurinn or Sportacus Nine, as I was the ninth to take on the title.” The man stops talking and takes the bottle from Alex.

“Close your mouth, you’re catching flies.” Alex quickly shut his mouth and Níu continued talking.

“Although saving people and helping them out of trouble is an important part of the job, there is another just as important part. We are supposed to help people live healthier. Get them to move and eat their fruits and vegetables. We don’t just save people from danger, we help them better themselves.” Níu, or whatever his real name was, had a faraway look on his face. Alex guessed that he was thinking back to when he had been an active ‘superhero’. Slightly-above-average hero was probably a better term though.

“It was a whole load of fun. Keeping people, children especially, from being lazy by playing games with them. Showing how much fun moving can be. But, alas, it was time for me to stop and start searching for a successor. I travelled around for a year before I spotted you flipping around the streets with your friends following you. I knew from that moment on I had find the right person to become number ten.” Alex eyes widened, Níu had been planning this since the very beginning? That was like... Six-seven years of planning?

“So… I’ll be number 10? Sportacus ten, the slightly-above-average hero?” Alex only realised he had said the title he had just made up out loud when Níu laughed good naturedly and patted him on his back.

“Slightly above average? No no no no, you’ll be a superhero. Don’t sell yourself short, Alex.” Níu smiled as he shook his head.

“Back to what I was saying. I chose you to be my successor. Of course, you’ll have to find your own way on how exactly you’re going to be doing it, I can’t tell you that. Every one of us has their own things. Eight, or Átta, was the one to train me. He was an elf like you and helped towns get healthy through eating raw fish and climbing through television screens.” Níu had a faraway look on his face again.

“He was an interesting man... But I digress, I had an airship and magical abilities to help out.” He waves at the airship in front of them, as if Alex needed an explanatory gesture to make that link.

“Before I quit I ran into some trouble with my airship. I didn’t have enough time to repair it fully before I left to fly it here so that’s why this place is such a mess. I crashed it again. But in the last couple of years I have had to opportunity to repair it fully. I wanted to give you the chance to use it as well, though you don’t have to.”

They continued to talk in a similar fashion. Alex was only getting slightly uncomfortable by Níu’s continuous talk of how he was going to be a great superhero. He wasn’t super in any way. If other people practiced enough they could reach similar levels as Alex had. Maybe that would be one of his own quirks then, telling everyone how they could be just like him if they practiced enough.

The tone of the talk stayed positive for a while, but a sad sigh from Níu signed that that was going to change.

“Now I should explain why I took you here today and not on any other day. I believe it would be for the best if you didn’t leave too long after your eighteenth birthday.” His words hit Alex like a brick. What? Why did he have to leave so soon? He knew he would have to leave sometime, but his foster parents had made very clear that he could stay with them even though he had aged out of the foster system.

“What... Why?” He was too put off to form a proper sentence. Níu shook his head sadly and took a sip from the water bottle he had taken from Alex.

“Well... Beside the fact that you should find yourself in a way you can’t do here there are also other reasons why you should leave. You are an odd one Alex. Back when you were young people just saw your oddities as youthful quirks, but as you have grown older people are starting to see those same quirks in a whole different light. Haven’t you noticed the way adults and other parents keep an eye out while you are playing games with younger children?” Alex nodded.

“Yeah... I thought it was odd and a bit creepy. I am old enough to watch a bunch of kids.” Níu smiled sadly and patted his protégé on the shoulder.

“Well, they think you’re... Doing some less than proper things with them if left alone.” Shock washes over Alex as he stares at Níu. They thought he would hurt those children? He would never do such a thing. All he wanted was them to have some fun outside, getting hurt wasn’t a part of that. How could they think of him as doing anything violent after having known him for eight years?

“I would never! Especially not kids.”

“I know, but rumours are a cruel thing.”

They continued to talk about the hero thing, Alex being happy to steer the conversation away from the idea that he would ever hurt children. Níu told him more about his time as an active hero and what kind of things Alex could expect in the future. Alex also asked more questions about number eight, as he was intrigued by the fact that there had been huldúfólk with the title before him. This also made him conclude that he had to go back to his roots before he went and help others. He needed to know more about his not so human parts. Níu had helped him a lot with magic, but Alex was pretty sure there was a lot about himself that Níu couldn’t help him with. This was actually what they were discussing at some point.

“You could always go to Iceland first. Try and get some extra training from whichever elven community you come from.” Alex didn’t tell Níu that he had already thought of that and he had given up years ago to correct him on the ‘elf’ term. For all the man knew about magic, using the correct terminology when it came to the hidden folk he was clueless. He did grin when Níu mentioned the idea though, now he could be openly excited about it. Alex stood up and did a couple of cartwheels, he had been sitting still for an incredible amount of time. Well, a lot of time for him. He was grinning until he remembered something and he stopped with his cartwheels in front of Níu.

“Well... I got the idea that I could use your airship, but… I have no idea how to fly it.” He made a rather lost face as he looked at the airship. It was pretty big and Alex couldn’t even start to guess how one operated a vehicle like that. Níu snorted before he answered.

“I will teach you how to operate it, I showed you this place months before your eighteenth birthday for a reason.” Alex was reminded again that the man had been working to this day for the past seven years.

“You will also get my old outfit, though you can change it as you see fit, and a crystal. This crystal is the most important thing I will give you.” Níu looked Alex straight in the eye, the way they held eye contact was kind of unnerving.

“This crystal will tell you when someone is in danger. You will form a bond with it, so it will also subconsciously tell you where the danger is. There are only seven of these in the world, so be careful.” They break eye contact, but Níu continued to speak.

“Besides changing the outfit, I will also allow you to change and update the airship. From this point onwards, it is yours and it should be comfortable for you, not me.” Níu handed him the now empty water bottle back and stood.

“Wait here.” He walked into the airship. Alex decided to grab an apple and eat it while he had the chance. He had munched quite a bit of it by the time Níu returned. He was carrying a medium sized square box like it was one of the most important things in the world. This, of course, made Alex very curious about its contents.

“Well, I didn’t put a bow on it, but happy early eighteenth birthday. This box contains the crystal and my old uniform. It’s all very important to me and I hope you will carry the title with pride. You’re Sportacus now, Sportacus ten.” The tone he used was one of a proud father seeing his son take over the family business. Alex thought it was rather touching that Níu thought of it like that. He accepted the box with a big smile on his face.

“Thank you.” Níu spoke again as he handed the box over to Alex.

“I’ll be on my way home now. You can stay here to think things over some more and see what you want to do. Tomorrow you will be having your first flying lesson and I expect you to be here at noon.” Níu nodded one last time and then left. Alex watched him leave and only once he could no longer see the man did he turn back to open the box. Inside were yellow clothes. Alex wasn’t really surprised by the choice of colour as it was the same colour Níu was still wearing. Alex was going to have to change that as yellow was not really his colour. Maybe green or blue would be more like him. When he grabbed the hat something on the end of it started glowing softly. Alex inspected it more closely, this must be the crystal Níu mentioned. The end of a hat seemed to be an illogical place for such an important item to be, so that would be another thing he would have to change. He took the crystal in his hands to get a feel to it. It was warm, but in a way, that was nice. As he was holding it, the light became brighter and brighter before disappearing completely. Was this the formation of the bond Níu mentioned? Alex didn’t know. He put the hat and crystal in his lap and dug deeper into the box. There he found something that made him snort. Yes, a lot of updating needed to be done with the uniform. He held the piece of clothing in front of him and spoke out loud to himself.

“Really? A vest with abs?”


	9. Epilogue

It was pretty chilly as Alex got out of his bed on his eighteenth birthday. The temperature wasn’t much of a surprise as it was November. He was supposedly an adult now, capable of standing on his own two feet. Something he wasn’t doing as he was walking on his hands from his room to the bathroom. It was still early as he finished brushing his teeth and got dressed. He always got up early, his birthday being no exception. His hair was now shorter as he had gotten the idea of wearing a hat to hide his ears. His hat was blue as he had decided to change the colour of the Sportacus outfit from yellow to blue. The hat was shaped a bit like a beanie and had a white stripe with a black stripe in it on one side. He thought it made it look more interesting than the prototype Níu had given him. Alex also got a pair of goggles to go with the hat, as he had learnt that flying the airship without them wasn’t very practical. Maybe he should install windows on the thing when he could. His friends didn’t question his fashion choices too much; they were probably thinking that he was trying to start a new trend.

As Alex went downstairs he was surprised that both Natalie and Theo were already up. Theo being up before him wasn’t as much of a surprise, as he often did that, but Natalie usually stayed in bed longer. They both hugged him and congratulated him with his eighteenth birthday. They also told him that they had invited over some people to come as well. Alex got a little excited about that, wondering who would come to visit. He quickly grabbed himself some breakfast because he knew that he wouldn’t have much time to eat once Jo made his way downstairs. Jo was thirteen now, but he was still excitable and all over the place, he did have ADHD. He had been right to eat quickly, because he was almost done when he was tackled from his chair by a small dinosaur.

It was Jo who was still dressed in his pjs. He was followed by a tired looking Elvis who had actually managed to get dressed before being dragged down by Jo. Both of them had grown quite a lot over the years, something which seemed to happen when one grew up. Elvis had also become a lot happier over the years and went outside to go out with friends now, something she didn’t do when Alex had just come to live with them. Jo had changed a whole lot less, the dinosaur thing turned out to be not just a phase and his thoughts were still just as unfollowable. Alex only got back to finishing his breakfast once both Elvis and Jo had congratulated him and had gone to make their own breakfasts.

They talked some more when the two of them returned, Elvis making a joke about how he was now a traitor as he had become an adult even though she was only a year younger than him. It was nice to have such a light-hearted conversation between the three of them.

After breakfast Alex did some morning exercises before heading out with Elvis and Jo in tow. They had planned on playing some games with the neighbourhood kids before the guests would arrive. They did just that for quite some time before anyone noticed the time and they hastily made their way back home. A street away from their home Alex noticed that the person they were walking behind was Chip. A grin formed on his face as he hugged his friend from behind. They had kept in contact over the years, though they had been unable to see each other a lot in person. Chip still had that same scruffy look he always had had.

“Eyyy Aleeeeex!” Chip grinned at his friend as he turned around to be able to hug him back. The hug was a bit awkward as Chip was holding something in his hands, but they made it work.

“Happy birthday! Now you have reached that age where they are going to kick you out of the house.” Chip sighed overdramatically and hung his head, obviously joking. Chip had got to know Natalie and Theo as well and knew that they wouldn’t just kick Alex onto the streets.

“Your parents didn’t kick you out last year, so I think I am pretty safe.”

“Yeah, you’re right. If they can manage to keep me around you should be safe with Natalie and Theo. I am much more annoying after all.” Well, that was not how Alex had intended it, but Elvis thought it was pretty damn funny. Jo had walked up ahead of them and was holding the door open. Chip snorted a bit as he walked behind Alex and played with the tip of Alex’s hat.

“Is this supposed to be a beanie?” Alex just shrugged as they walked into the house.

As they entered the living room Alex could hear Jo explain why they were so late by going in detail about the games they had been playing. Alex didn’t pay it much mind as he was enveloped by many of his friends from school and other activities. Natalie told Alex that she was going to get the cake over all the noise. Some of his friends asked who Chip was as none of them had met him before, but Chip quickly deflected it all by handing Alex his present and declaring that he was Alex’s oldest friend. Any questions that could have followed that statement were cut short by Natalie coming back with a cake, followed by Jo holding another one.

“We thought we’d do something special and got two cakes. One normal one and one apple pie without any sugar.” Alex smiled, he thought it was quite endearing that they always thought of the little things like that. He made sure he got a slice to try it while he talked to some of his friends. It was really nice and Alex was sure to include sugar free pies in his coming birthdays as well. It seemed to fit the occasion, though apples on their own were really more Alex’s thing.

After they had all talked and the presents had opened the group went outside to play some games. One by one his friends had to leave to be home in time for dinner, the only one not leaving was Chip. Chip was going to stay over for the night as it would take a couple of hours for him to return home. So, in the end it was just the four of them when Theo called for dinner.

Dinner gave them to opportunity to talk about things like what Chip was doing now and what he was going to do and what the future may hold for any of them. This lead to them talking about Alex getting out of the foster family, something that spurred Theo to sit up extra straight and look at Alex very seriously.

“I know we have mentioned it before, but you are welcome to stay here for however long you need to Alex. Same goes for you Elvis, once you turn eighteen.” Alex thanked them for the offer, but as no one really wanted to talk about it more than necessary the topic of conversation was quickly changed. Chip took the lead by rattling off again about his dream to write for travel agencies and how glad he was that he and Alex had stayed in contact through all these years.

Chip was the kind of person who could talk a mile a minute about all kinds of things without pause and still manage to eat at the same time. He had always been that way as long as Alex could remember. It could get a little too much from time to time, but everyone at the dinner table had gotten used to it. Chip had often insisted on coming over or Alex visiting him as they lived the nearest to one another out of all the children from the mines. Both of them felt a little bad for not trying harder to keep in contact with the others as well, but Alex guessed that they moved on. Instead of being sad about this Chip and Alex made up stories of what they thought the other children would be doing now.

Alex went to bed around his usual time that night, bidding his foster family and Chip goodnight. In his room he made sure he had everything ready for when he left to go to Iceland. He also put the clothes he was going to wear the next day on a chair. Then he changed into his pyjamas and brushed his teeth. Before he went to bed he set his alarm. He had to wake up earlier than usual for his hike to the airship. Earlier in the month he had decided to leave after his eighteenth birthday, it seemed like an appropriate moment to him. He closed his eyes and fell asleep at 8:08pm like he did every night.

* * *

 

The following morning, he woke up from his alarm going off and quickly shut it off again. He didn’t want to wake up everybody else as well. After he got dressed and his teeth brushed he put his last things in his bag and went downstairs. This time Theo wasn’t downstairs and he made a quick breakfast to go while putting some fruits in his bag as well. Alex put his bag in the hall and went back to the living room to write a letter for everyone once they woke up and noticed he was no longer there. He wanted to make sure that they knew it wasn’t their fault that he left and to keep them from worrying too much about him, but he had to be quick or he would go of schedule.

_ Dear everyone, _

_ I know you wouldn’t mind if I stayed, but I felt like it was time for me to go. I know of the rumours going around town about me and hope that you know none of it is true and that you understand that they are not the reason as to why I am leaving. _

_ I have some business to take care of and I know there is somewhere I need to go before I make my own way in this world. I need to go back to where I come from, even though no one could prove I did. I think there are things I need to learn that I can only learn there. Does this make any sense at all? I hope it does. _

_ After that I want to go help people, though I am not exactly sure how I will be doing that yet. Maybe I will get some inspiration in Iceland! _

_ Please don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine, I got everything planned. Sorry that I didn’t tell you about all this before, but I was afraid you might try and change my mind. I also might have forgotten to tell it. If there is anything, just write me! I may be busy, but I’ll try to answer to all of your letters as quickly as possible. I can’t wait for your first letters to arrive! _

_ Your Slightly-Above-Average hero, _

_ Alex _

Alex then folded the letter into a little airplane and left it on the living room table. Next to the airplane he left the stamp seals he had made for his foster family members and Chip, each one their own, so they could write to him. He grabbed the breakfast he had made earlier and hauled his bag onto his back. The last thing he did before he left was removing the house key from his keychain. He was pretty sure that Theo and Natalie would have allowed him to keep it, but he thought it would be rude to assume and not ask first. Then Alex left the key on a table next to the door and left the house.

As he stood outside he looked back at the house for a moment. Alex shook his head, trying to shake the negative feelings away. His last moments in town should be happy, not sad. He closed the door behind him and started eating his breakfast as he walked away from the house he had called home for eight years. With every step he took he would be closer to going back to the place he had called home before mister Kicker had ruined everything. The ability to go back to that home was one of the best birthday presents he could have wished for.

Once Alex had finished his breakfast he sped up from a walk into a run. He only slowed down when he reached the forest and had to watch his footing. He sighed and looked up at the still dark sky. Because it was November it was still pretty dark that early in the morning and there were no more streetlights as Alex entered the forest. He grabbed a flashlight from his backpack and continued on his way to the airship. Alex went off path a little later, following the small trail he and Níu had created by walking the same way again and again. It didn’t take too long for him to reach the clearing where the airship was waiting for him.

Alex went into the ship and put his bag down on the floor before he closed the door behind him. He breathed slowly for a moment to let everything sink in. He had been unable to do that in front of his foster home, but here he allowed himself to have a moment. Once he had collected himself again he grabbed something to drink from his bag and pulled a couple of levers to get the airship to take off. He flew it for a while, but slowed down as he flew over town. Alex looked down at the town he had called home for a big chunk of his life. As he looked down he wondered if Theo and Natalie were up yet and if they had read his letter. He shook his head again to disperse the thoughts and go back to flying the airship. Soon he would be flying a lot faster than he was now so he put his goggles in front of his eyes. He really had to fix that bit about the airship, the lack of windows when you were going fast was not just annoying on his eyes, it could also get pretty cold. The ship was also a bit clunky, but he guessed he could fix that once he was in Iceland. He started to build up speed, leaving the town behind him. Alex was going home, happiness rising as he got closer to where his people were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's that for Stay positive! thanks for everyone who stayed with us through those heavy first few chapters.

**Author's Note:**

> The working title of this fic was 'Alex the Turd' and this image https://68.media.tumblr.com/d10e51ac23f875b9b3c92dae9252d27e/tumblr_okixu6xXem1u9t8nxo3_500.png by Tumbler user space-is-the-place2 was watching over the document.


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